


Even if it takes all night

by BeautifulBlues



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: First Time, M/M, Merlin Holidays, Modern Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-26
Updated: 2012-12-26
Packaged: 2017-11-22 12:07:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/609656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeautifulBlues/pseuds/BeautifulBlues
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From the prompt: “Merlin is a virgin and having sex with another person makes him uncomfortable/nervous/scared; Arthur is comfortable about his sexuality and initially doesn’t understand why the sex isn’t happening when they’re dating; but when he realizes Merlin's anxiety, he finds the patience and affection to help Merlin overcome his fears”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Even if it takes all night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lullabylily](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lullabylily/gifts).



> This is a fic for Lullabylily - Happy Hols! Hope this lives up to expectations and hits enough kinks/tropes for you…
> 
> Also thanks to the lovely mods of this fest – it’s a fantastic fest, & thank you for putting up with me.

Arthur had always been pretty comfortable with the whole sex thing. He knew, in an abstract kind of way, that not everyone had had it as easy as him, but he was one of those people who knew what to say and when, who knew instinctively how to move his lips against someone else's, how to touch, when to undress, and precisely what to put where.

It helped, he supposed, that his first time had been with a fairly long term boyfriend with whom he'd had an amicable split, and still met up with for coffee whenever they were both home from uni. It also helped that he had that kind of easy charm that meant that, even when you wanted to hate him for being so goddamn good at everything, he would just let out a burst of uncontainable laughter, or say something in the voice that meant it was only for you, and you couldn't help but love him.

He had had a few partners, but had never been the type to just fuck around. It came naturally to him to flirt, he made friends with everyone, he danced like a pro -especially after a few drinks - and, even with a distinct lack of sobriety, he was graceful.

Merlin Emrys could never have been accused of being graceful. He seemed, to anyone who had dared to try and stand near him, to have at least seven bony elbows, and probably more knees, and his head-to-ear ratio was distinctly skewed. He danced like someone who couldn't wait to get home, pink tinged cheeks and all. He had a couple of close friends who, for reasons that were completely beyond him, put up with his perennially awkward ways, and was fairly physically incapable of talking to anyone he was even slightly attracted to.

The night they met was nothing out of the ordinary; there were no fireworks, no lightning strikes, no slow-motion, everyone-else-blurred-out-but-us, instant-recognition, love-at-first-sight-without-even-a-word moments. Just a hot guy working behind the bar at the student union and an awkward guy whose friends had dragged him out trying to buy a large drink.

Gwen and Will were on the dancefloor but Merlin didn't quite feel like he'd had enough to drink to be able to dance yet, so he was waiting - far more patiently, he thought, than he should have - for the attention of the barman, who seemed to be far too busy flirting with anything that moved to actually be doing any work.

"Hey, excuse me? I've been waiting longer than her!"

"Sorry mate, I'll get to you in just a sec."

"I'm not your mate." Merlin grumbled. He hadn't expected the blonde guy to hear him, but judging by the bark of laughter and the appraising look he was receiving, he had. Damn, Merlin thought, flushing red, he hated being rude to people.

"Right, what can I get you, my friend?"

Merlin bristled. "Well I was going to just get a pint, but if you're going to spend the whole damn night flirting with everything with a vagina that comes near you, I'll get two so I don't have to wait again."

The barman laughed once more, with a look of surprise on his face that said that he wasn't used to getting challenged but kind of liked it. He studied Merlin through his lashes as he pulled the pints.

"To be honest mate, I'd be more likely to flirt with you than them. I'm as gay as a rainbow fucking unicorn" He gave a disarming grin as he placed the glasses in front of Merlin. "Five quid please."

"Like hell are you gay." Merlin mumbled as he passed over the note. Apparently his mutter-ometer was on the blink that day though, as the man heard him perfectly and just stood looking at him instead of putting the money in the till and moving onto the next customer.

"Why do you think I'm not gay?"

"Look at you. If you were gay someone would have snapped you up long ago, and you wouldn't be flirting with guys in the bar where you work. Also, I reiterate the whole flirting with everything with a vagina."

"I'm friendly because it gets tips. And actually, I'm very single and very gay."

"Yeah right."

"Would you like me to prove it?"

"I don't know how you'd try."

The barman didn't even pause. He leant forward, the fiver still clutched in his fist, grabbed the front of Merlin's shirt, pulled him forwards across the bar that separated them and pressed their lips together. The blonde guy's lips were cracked and dry - probably a symptom of having spent the last few hours working behind the bar - but he smiled into the kiss, melding their mouths together as if they belonged. There was just the slightest hint of tongue - that hot, wet slide along Merlin's lower lip - before the barman pulled away, a smug quirk at the corner of his mouth.

"I'm Arthur, by the way."

 

\-------

It was just Merlin's luck, of course, that Arthur turned out to be the step-brother of Morgana, who was good friends with Gwen. Before he knew what was happening, his nice safe little friendship group had somehow assimilated into theirs, and he spent an inordinate amount of his time trying not to obsess over the long, lingering glances and the thigh pressed warmly to his under the table.

By some unspoken agreement, neither of them ever mentioned that time they had kissed. Until it happened again.

It was the end of a week when Merlin had been exceptionally stressed with uni work - several long essays had been due in, and it was in a module he wasn't confident at all in. For some reason that was utterly incomprehensible to him, Arthur had forsaken his 'inherent prattliness' (as Merlin liked to say, though it backfired when Arthur constantly took it as a compliment) and had spent the week providing cups of tea, biscuits, food with "actual fucking nutrition, because real friends save friends from scurvy, Merlin", and encouragement.

Merlin had finished all of his essays and handed them in (and wouldn't like to admit to quite how many all-nighters it took), and somehow found himself being almost carried back home from the academic building by, of course, Arthur. He occasionally tried to protest that he was perfectly capable of walking by himself, thank you very much, but seeing as what actually ended up coming out of his mouth was an exhausted, blurred murmur of jumbled vowels and consonants, he found that it didn't exactly help his case.

He even tried to protest when Arthur started tucking him into bed, but after a moment decided it wasn't that bad at all. Then, naturally, he had to figure out a way to thank Arthur without using his still-questionable verbal skills (i.e., his complete lack of). The only logical course of action was to tangle his fist in the front of Arthur's shirt, tug him unceremoniously down, and kiss him. Arthur didn't seem nearly as surprised as he should have, but his lips were soft so Merlin didn't mind.

They explored each other's mouths for a good five minutes, until Arthur decided that Merlin yawning was not an invitation to deepen the kiss but in fact an indication that Merlin needed sleep. So he managed to extract himself from Merlin's limbs, tucked him in and pressed a soft kiss to his forehead, promising to have a cup of tea ready whenever Merlin was ready to wake up. Merlin tried to stay indignantly awake, but failed miserably.

The next morning the cup of tea was there, as promised, but it had gone cold where it sat next to Arthur, who was napping on the sofa. Merlin smiled indulgently, enjoying the warm, contented feeling in his stomach sparked by the domestic scene in front of him. Maybe this could be a good thing.

\--------

The transition from friends to couple went, Merlin thought, surprisingly smoothly. It seemed they'd been dating for a while without realising it, the only real change being that when they had their 'moments' of long periods of eye contact, or thighs touching, or hands brushing against each other, they could actually acknowledge it and do something about it. Merlin hadn't really been in a relationship before (unless you counted that whole ill-advised thing he'd had with Will at the beginning of secondary school, which he definitely didn't), so often wondered if it was always this easy.

He didn't exactly tell Arthur that he'd never been in a relationship before, or that their kiss in the SU had been his first proper kiss (again, not counting the Will fiasco). He didn't want to come across as completely inexperienced. Well, he was completely inexperienced, but that was utterly beside the point; Arthur had no complaints, so Merlin saw no point in bringing it up.

\-------

They'd been together for nearly two months by the time Arthur started to notice that something might be up. There'd been a lot of kissing (which was fine with him), an amount of touching-through-clothes, and a bit of nearly-but-not-quite-coming-in-pants (and god, didn't that just make him feel like he was 14 again). But that was it, and Arthur couldn't figure out why.

Their relationship was fine: their friends were already making old-married-couple jokes, and somehow that didn't scare either of them as much as it perhaps should have. They'd stayed at each other's flats overnight as well, though clothes had remained on and touching was mainly restricted to making out and cuddling. And Arthur was completely fine with that, there was little he loved more than falling asleep with Merlin curled in his arms, nuzzling his nose to the back of Merlin's neck to inhale as much of him as he could. He couldn't lie, the feeling of spooning together already felt like home.

But he was kind of ready for more.

\-----

"Hey Gwen, can I talk to you about something?

"Of course. What's up?"

"Well, you know Merlin?"

"I... May have met him once or twice, yes. Arthur, what's going on?"

"It's just- I don't know. It's a stupid little thing. Has he ever had a bad experience with sex, or something?"

Arthur wasn't sure what response he had expected, but it certainly hadn't been for Gwen to burst into surprised laughter. She tried to suppress it almost immediately (managing to tone it down to merely an amused grin), but the damage had been done.

"Why are you laughing? It's not funny! I'm fucking worried about my boyfriend, and you're just laughing!"

"I'm sorry, but really... Why are you asking?"

"We've been together a couple of months now, right? And things are awesome, but every time it looks like we might go further than kissing he just kind of clams up. I was really worried that maybe something had happened to him in the past."

"Oh god no. Pretty much the opposite actually. Do me a favour?"

"What?"

"Fucking talk to him about it."

\------

It was another week before Arthur screwed up the courage to talk to Merlin about it. They'd watched a film at Arthur's flat, and were curled up together on the sofa - relaxed, cosy and comfortable. Arthur nuzzled his nose into Merlin's hair, his arms around the skinnier man as they reclined against each other.

"Hey Merlin?"

"Hey Arthur." Merlin's voice was soft and content, making Arthur want to give up the whole talking-to-his-boyfriend-about-things idea in favour of a hefty amount of making out, but no, this needed to be said.

Somehow (later, he'll never be able to figure out how) Arthur managed to ask Merlin why they weren't having sex. (To be fair to him, he worded it slightly more tactfully - though not that much more.) What followed was an extensive, long-overdue conversation involving a large amount of stuttering and more blushing than either of them could have thought possible.

Merlin was embarrassed, Arthur was upset that Merlin hadn't told him, Merlin accidentally let slip that Arthur had been his first kiss, Arthur went to put the kettle on because this kind of conversation required tea. Finally, after talking themselves in circles, slumped - exhausted - on the sofa, they were done. Everything was out in the open, they'd been honest, shared stories, shared fears, shared tears.

"Merlin, you know I love you, right? I'll wait as long as you need."

"That's the first time you've said that." Merlin's voice was small, meek.

"Yep. Doesn't stop it being true."

"I love you too."

\--------

And wait Arthur did - though not for too much longer.

As the weeks went by, Merlin started to expand what he was comfortable with, his confidence growing in the way he touched and allowed himself to be touched.

The first time Arthur brought him to orgasm it was almost by accident: heat of the moment, frantic moving against each other, clothes still on (albeit very wrinkled). But Merlin's face was just so perfect when he came (flushed, his mouth open in a gasp, his eyes wide with surprise and pleasure) that Arthur vowed to himself to spend as much time and effort as he could to make it happen again.

The first time Arthur touched Merlin naked, he wouldn’t let Merlin hide his face. He held eye contact with a loving gaze and gentle touches to Merlin’s cheek as he stroked Merlin slowly to climax. (Merlin didn’t even have to touch Arthur for him to follow over the edge.)

The first time Arthur sucked Merlin off, Merlin allowed himself to moan loudly – Arthur thought he might be addicted to that sound. (The first time Merlin sucked Arthur off, he came harder than he ever had in his life. Merlin swallowed every drop.)

\------

It was a Tuesday. Arthur would always remember that it was a Tuesday. There was nothing special about it – it was no one’s birthday, no anniversary, nothing. So when Merlin whispered into Arthur’s ear – over a cup of tea and a shared biscuit – that he was ready, that he wanted Arthur to fuck him, Arthur had to ask him to repeat it three times. When he finally understood, he leant in and kissed Merlin hard, no longer able to stay apart. Both completely ignored the half eaten biscuit that fell to the floor between them.

They slowly made it to Arthur’s bedroom, where Arthur gently lay Merlin down on his bed. He took a moment to just look at the man before him – the pitch black hair falling over his forehead, the blush high on his razor-sharp cheekbones, the nervous spread of his legs – before following him down, stretching himself across Merlin’s body. They kissed – slowly, deeply, with just mere hints of what was to come. Their lips moved together as if they could never bear to part, each gasp and moan taken as an invitation to delve a little deeper, tongues hot, sliding.

Arthur dragged his fingers up Merlin’s chest, taking his shirt as he went. He paused briefly to concentrate on each nipple – rubbing, gently tugging – before continuing higher, managing to tear their mouths apart momentarily in order to pull Merlin’s shirt off over his head. He tugged his own shirt off as well, moaning softly when their chests met. Arthur kissed along Merlin’s jaw, unable to stop touching, licking, biting, stroking the man beneath him.

Soon the two were naked, writhing and flexing against each other as they tried to completely cover each other’s bodies with their own. Arthur leant over to the top drawer of his bedside table, pulling out a couple of condoms and – Merlin thought – a frighteningly large bottle of lube. Merlin stiffened, his hands stilling on Arthur’s back.

“Hey, hey. You sure you want to do this?”

“Yes! God yes, I’m just… I’m just nervous.” Arthur smiled indulgently, placing the lube and condoms down and he bent to kiss Merlin again.

“Trust me. I promise I’ll make you smile.”

Merlin murmured something that could have been “You make me smile anyway, you prat”, but Arthur couldn’t be sure. He linked the fingers of both hands with Merlin’s and squeezed reassuringly, then started to kiss his way down Merlin’s chest. When he reached his crotch, he placed light, teasing kisses to the man’s bony hipbones before sucking his cock into his mouth, sliding down as far as he could go with a hum of satisfaction at the stuttered noises coming from Merlin’s mouth. Arthur alternated between sucking softly, sucking hard, and pulling off altogether so that he could lick up and down, tracing the dark vein on the underside of Merlin’s dick and pressing on the ridge below the head.

When Arthur could feel that the man beneath him was relaxed again, he reached over to the bottle of lube, deftly flicked open the lid and poured a liberal amount onto his hand. He rubbed it between his fingers to warm it, then reached underneath Merlin and traced his hole. Merlin tensed instinctively, so Arthur kept his finger there while he lavished attention on the man’s dick. When he felt that he was sufficiently distracted, he pressed his finger inside, sliding up to the knuckle. Merlin winced.

As Arthur started to move his finger slowly in and out, he worked his way back up Merlin’s body so that he could kiss him and make sure he wasn’t in pain. Soon, he added a second finger – working it in slowly and gradually as Merlin’s nails scratched down his back. As Merlin’s slightly pained expression turned to one of pleasure, Arthur started to speed up, crooking his fingers until he saw Merlin’s eyes widen with surprise and pleasure. He continued to hit that spot as he worked a third finger inside, stretching and scissoring his fingers until Merlin’s head was back, his eyes closed.

“Arthur, I’m… Fuck me.” Arthur looked up at Merlin’s face and saw the want in his eyes. He gulped and nodded, no longer able to figure out words, let alone sentences.

Arthur pulled his fingers out with an obscene pop, then grabbed the condom. His hands were so slippery that he nearly dropped it, but he managed to open it and shakily roll it onto himself. He arranged Merlin’s legs so that one was over his shoulder and the other around his waist, then leant forward and placed a soft kiss onto his lips. He lined himself up, waited for a final nod of confirmation from Merlin, then pressed forward.

Arthur didn’t know what to focus on as his cock breached Merlin – if he focused on the wince of pain that Merlin tried to hide he wouldn’t have the heart to continue, but if he focused on the fact that he was finally inside his boyfriend he wouldn’t last ten seconds. He tried to just not think.

He kept pressing forwards – deeper and deeper until he could go no further, buried inside Merlin. He paused for a moment, allowing Merlin time to get used to the sensation and himself time to compose himself – they were both breathing as heavily as if they’d run a marathon.

“Okay?”

“Yeah.”

Merlin twitched his hips slightly, and Arthur started to move, thrusting slowly and shallowly to start. His movements gradually sped up, getting deeper as Merlin’s moans – both of their moans – got louder. Merlin’s hands seemed to be everywhere – pulling on Arthur’s thigh to get him deeper, scraping down his back, threading through his hair, pulling his face down for a kiss that was all tongue, wet and dirty, on his own cock, pulling with jarring movements. Arthur shifted, changing the angle slightly until he was hitting Merlin’s prostate with every thrust, drawing loud moans from his lips. His hand joined Merlin’s on his cock, and he managed three more hard thrusts (their hands moving in time) before Merlin was coming, yelling and clutching at Arthur as pearly strings of come coated his stomach. The fierce clench of his arse as he orgasmed was too much for Arthur – he followed only seconds afterwards, collapsing onto Merlin.

The two lay together for what seemed like hours after, just breathing.

“Hey Arthur?”

“Yeah?”

“You promise you’ll make me smile? Come on, how fucking cliché did you want to be?”

Arthur laughed and swiped at Merlin’s leg, but the grin he could hear in the man’s voice was worth it. It seemed he’d kept his promise.


End file.
